Hello dudes!
could someone do me the biggest favour and tell me anything you know about sissone please!! ive got to do a huge piece of work on it, i cant find anything out about it apart from the definition. Anything like, where it originated, or performances that have used the movement would be fab!! i wouldnt normally beg lol but im really struggling, plz wb lv jen :confused: [email]lil_jdo@yahoo.com" target="_blank[/email] if uve got any pics x

Hi jennie and welcome to CriticalDance!

I'm moving your post to our "Students' Questions and Experiences" forum, where I think you may have a better chance to get responses.

<small>[ 17 November 2004, 02:55 AM: Message edited by: Stuart Sweeney ]</small>

Gail Grant's "Technical Manual and Dictionary of Classical Ballet": "Sissonne: Sissonne is named for the originator of the step. There are many different forms of sissonne: sissonne simple and ouverte being taken off two feet and finishing on one foot, and sissonne doublee and fermee being taken off two feet and finishing on two feet." There are five pages in this manual describing different varieties of the step including beating and turning variations. It's a great resource...

P.S. The ending sequence of the Lilac Fairy variation in "The Sleeping Beauty" has sissonne ferme and ouvert in combination with en dehors pirouette.

<small>[ 17 November 2004, 01:00 AM: Message edited by: GN ]</small>

The sissonne, in all its variations, is a very common step in ballet, and hence is found everywhere. Here are some more examples, from three more well known ballets:

(1) In Act 2 of "Swan Lake," Odette (the Swan Queen) does a variation (solo) that starts with a sissonne fermée followed by a sissonne ouverte (both of which are en avant, or traveling forward).

(2) In Act 1 of "Don Quixote," Kitri has a variation with several sissonnes in which the dancer bends her back leg and tries to touch the back of her head with her toe (or touch her hand, which is raised over her head -- I suppose it depends on the length of her legs and how much she bends her leg).

(3) There are lots of sissonnes in Act 2 of “Giselle,” both in the pas de deux and the variations. In some of these, the man lifts the woman in a sissonne ouverte and lowers her gently to an arabesque on pointe.

<small>[ 17 November 2004, 02:23 AM: Message edited by: djb ]</small>

Here are some good short videos of ballet steps including some variations on sissone:

http://www.abt.org/education/dictionary/index.html